| Wenchang Temple | |
|---|---|
文昌祠 | |
 Exterior of the temple | |
| Religion | |
| Affiliation | Taoism |
| Deity | Wenchang Wang |
| Location | |
| Location | Miaoli City,Miaoli County |
| Country | Taiwan |
 Interactive map of Wenchang Temple | |
| Coordinates | 24°33′14″N120°49′05″E / 24.5539°N 120.8181°E /24.5539; 120.8181 |
| Architecture | |
| Completed | 1885 |
| Direction of façade | Southeast |
Miaoli Wenchang Temple (Chinese:苗栗文昌祠;pinyin:Miáolì Wénchāng Cì), formerly known asYingcai Academy (Chinese:英才書院;pinyin:Yīngcái Shūyuàn), is a temple inMiaoli City,Miaoli County, Taiwan. The temple is dedicated toWenchang Dijun, the deity of culture and literature.Confucius,Cangjie andKui Xing are also worshipped in the main shrine. During theQing Dynasty era, the temple also served as thecounty magistrate's office before a separate county hall was built.
Miaoli was originally an agrarian settlement, but in the 19th century, the city's growth saw the rise of an academic society. In 1882, five local scholars proposed that a temple dedicated to Wenchang Wang to be built, and Wenchang Temple was completed in 1885. In 1889, Miaoli County was established but lacked a county hall; therefore, county magistrateLin Gui-fen [zh] set up his office within the temple. The same year, Yingcai Academy was established on temple grounds as ashuyuan, a type of educational institution.[1]
Six years later, Yingcai Academy was shut down by Japanese authorities when Taiwan was ceded to Japan in the 1895Treaty of Shimonoseki. Nevertheless, the temple was the congregating place for scholars. In 1927, a group of academics banded together to form Lishe (栗社), which regularly held publicpoetry readings in the temple.[1][2] Temple itself was heavily damaged by the1935 Shinchiku-Taichū earthquake and was further damaged when it was used by the Japanese as military barracks and government dormitories.[1]
On 19 August 1985, theMiaoli County Government protected Wenchang Temple as a county-level monument, which allowed for preservation work to be carried out between 1997 and 2002.[1][3]
Usually, the middle door to Wenchang is closed to worshippers and can only be accessed byzhuangyuan, or people that get full marks on theImperial examination. In 2007, the Miaoli County Government began hosting ceremonies honoring students for their academic achievements by allowing them to step through the middle door. Participants range from those that obtaineddoctorate degrees to those that acquired good grades on their high school entrance examinations. This is the only government-hosted event of its type in Taiwan.[4][5]
